Internal-combustion engine.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH D. BLAISDELL, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 28, 1905.

Application filed March 1'7, 1904. Serial No. 198,568.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH D. BLAISDELL, a citizen of the United States, residing in Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented an Improvement in Internal-Combustion Engines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, is aspecification, like numerals on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to an internal-combustion engine, and has for its object to provide an engine which is simple in construction and has a minimum number of parts, but which has a maximum efiiciency.

I reduce the number of parts by constructing the engine with a double cylinder, by which I mean two cylinders of different diameter which open directly into each other, and a double piston having portions of different diameter which operate in said double cylinder, and I increase the efficiency by providing means whereby each piston acts independently in transmitting power to the crank-shaft. This latter result is accomplished by providing each portion of the cylinder with a separate combustion-chamber and so arranging the valves and other parts of the engine that on successive strokes the charges of gaseous fuel are exploded alternately in the two combustion-chambers. The efiect thus produced is of a double-cylinder four-cycle engine or one in which an explosion takes place at each stroke. Since the two cylinders and two pistons are practically one, the number of moving parts are reduced to a minimum.

In the best form of my invention now known to me the vaporized fuel is delivered to the jacket or cooling chamber surrounding the cylinders, and from the jacket it passes into the crank-case of the engine, which is closed to the air, but is open to the end of the larger cylinder.

lVith this construction the gaseous fuel delivered from the vaporizer circulates completely around both of the cylinders and then is delivered to the crank-case, from which it passes to the interior of the pistons and through valved passages in the latter to the combustion-chambers.

The circulation of fuel in the jacket-chamber of the cylinder accomplishes two results. In the first place, the heat from the cylinder is utilized to heat the gasolene or other vapor,

. so that it is delivered to the combustion-chamber in a condition to give the most effective results; and, second, the refrigerating action, which necessarily accompanies the operation of vaporizing gasolene or other liquid fuel, serves to cool the engine-cylinder.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a central vertical section of my improved engine on the line r as, Fig. 2; and Fig. 2 is a section on the line 3 y, Fig. 1.

In the preferred form of my invention the cylinder of the engine is a double cylinder having portions 3 and 4 of different diameter, the portion 4 being of larger diameter and the portion 3 of smaller diameter. The cylinder 3 opens into the upper end of the cylinder 4, and the latter cylinder is open at its lower end. Operating in the cylinders is a double piston comprising the part 5 of smaller diameter, fitting within the cylinder 3, and the part 6 of larger diameter, fitting within the cylinder 4, said parts being connected to form one integral structure and both being hollow.

7 is the usual pitman, connecting the piston 4 with the crank-shaft 8. This latter is journaled in a closed crank-casing 9, which communicates with the open end of the cylinder 4. In the form of th einvention illustrated the crank-shaft rotates in boxes 10, which are held in apertures in the sides of the crankcasing, and said crank-casing is divided on the line 12, so that the lower part can be removed for repairing or assembling the parts.

The piston 6 has an aperture 13 therein, which leads from the interior of the piston to the combustion-chamber 14 of the cylinder 4, and the piston 5 has a similar aperture 15 therein, which leads from the interior of said piston to the combustion-chamber 16 of the cylinder 3.

17 designates a valve controlling the passage 13, and 18 another valve controlling the passage 15. Said valve may be of any suitable type or form, and those herein illustrated are ball-valves, this form being preferable because they more readily seat themselves than clapper or puppet valves.

28 designates suitable guards for preventing the valves from being entirely dislodged from their seats, and 19 19 designate any usual or suitable sparking plugs which are located in the combustion-chambers 14 and 16.

The vaporized gasolene or other gaseous fuel may be admitted to the interior of the crank-case 9 either directly or through the jackets of the cylinders. It is the latter con- IIO both of the cylinders, and 21 any suitable or usual vaporizer connected to deliver the vaporized gasolene or other fuel into said jacketchamber. In this form of my invention the vaporizer is arranged to deliver gaseous fuel to one side of the jacket-chamber 20 at its lower end, and the other side of said chamber communicates with the interior of the crankcase through a port 22, suitable means being provided in the interior of the jacket to cause the vaporized gasolene or other gaseous fuel to circulate completely around and over the top of the upper cylinder in its passage from the vaporizer to the port 22. The simplest mechanism for accomplishing this comprises partitions 24c, which extend from the bottom of the jacket-chamber 20 on each side of the cylinder nearly to the top thereof, and thus separate the portion of the chamber to which the vaporizer 21 is connected from the portion with which the port 22 communicates. With this construction the vaporized fuel passes into the right-hand side of chamber 20 in Fig. 1 and up said side over the top of the cylinder 3, down the left-hand side, and through the port 22 into the closed crank-case.

26 designates the exhaust-port from the upper cylinder 3, and 27 the exhaust-port from the lower cylinder 4.

I propose to employ, in connection with my engine, some suitable contact mechanism for causing the sparking plugs to operate alternately upon successive strokes of the engine, so that an explosion occurs first in one combustion-chamber and then in the other. I have not deemed it necessary to illustrate in detail a sparking device for thus alternately firing the sparking plugs, as any of the contact devices now on the market which are adapted to alternately lire said plugs may be employed without departing in any way from the invention.

The operation of the improved engine is as follows: Assume that the charge of gas in the combustion-chamber 16 has just been ignited. It will be evident that the piston 3, and consequently the piston 4:, will be driven downward through the force of the explosion, and during such downward movement the suction created in chamber 14: will lift the valve 17 from its seat, and the gaseous fuel will be drawn from the interior of the crank-case through the hollow piston 6 and ports 13 into the combustion-chamber14. At the end of the downstroke the exhaust-port 26 is uncovered and the burned gases in the smaller cylinder 3 are exhausted. Upon the upstroke the valve 17 closes and the charge of gas in the combustion-chamber 14 is compressed. At the end of the upper stroke the sparking plug 19 is fired, and the ignition of the gas in the chamber 14 drives the piston downward again, during which movement the valve 17 is held to its seat by the excessive pressure above the same, while the valve 18 is raised by the suction in the chamber 16 and a fresh charge of gaseous fuel is drawn through the port into said combustion-chamber. At the end of the second downstroke the cylinder 4 exhausts through the port 27, and upon the upstroke thecharge of gas in the chamber 16 is compressed. At the end of the upstroke said charge is ignited by the sparking plug 19*, and the above-named outlined operations are repeated. During each upstroke of the piston the vaporized gasolene is drawn through the vaporizer into the jacket-chamber 20 and from the latter through the port 22 into the crank-case, from which it is drawn into the combustion chambers, as above described. My improved engine therefore is afonr-cycle engine, which receives an impulse at each stroke and is, in effect, a double-cylinder fourcycle engine. The parts are so arranged, however, that but one piston and crank are necessary, and the valve structure is reduced to the simplest form.

The advantage of sending the vaporized fuel through the jacket-chamber 20 is that the fuel becomes heated during its passage therethrough, and at the same time the refrigerating action, due to the vaporization of the gasolene or other liquid fuel, cools the cylinders.

It will be seen that my engine is extremely simple, has a minimum number of moving parts, and yet is very effective.

In constructing the engine I will preferably make the effective area of the lower piston 1 substantially equal to that of the upper piston 3, so that the force developed during each forward movement of the pistons will be the same.

designates a suitable draw off cock through which any moisture or oil accumulating in the crank-chamber may be withdrawn.

While I have herein described the preferred form of my invention, yet I do not wish to be limited to the precise construction illustrated, as various changes in the form and arrangement of the parts may be made without in any way departing from the invention expressed in the appended claims.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an internal-combustion engine, two connected cylinders, each having a combustion-chamber, two connected pistons operating simultaneously in the same direction in said cylinders, each piston having a valved passage therethrough opening directly into the combustion-chamber of the corresponding cylinder and means to supply gaseous fuel to the combustion-chambers through said valved passages.

2. In an internal-combustion engine, two connected cylinders of different diameter, each having at one end a combustion-chamber in one end of and one of said cylinders being open at the other end, a closed crank-case communicating with said open end of said cylinder, means to admit gaseous fuel to the crankcase, and two connected pistons of different diameter operating in said cylinders, each piston having a valved passage therethrough through which gaseous fuel is admitted from the crank-case to the corresponding combustion-chamber.

3. In an internal-combustion engine, two connected cylinders of different diameter each having a combustionchamber, two connected pistons of different diameter operating in said cylinders, each piston having a valved passage therethrough opening into the corresponding combustionchamber of the corresponding cylinder, and means to supply gaseous fuel to the combustion-chambers through. said valved passages.

4:. In an internal-combustion engine, two connected cylinders of difl erent diameters, each having a combustion-chamber, and one of said cylinders being open at one end, a closed crank-case communicating with said open end, two connected pistons operating in said cylinders, each piston being hollow and having a port communicating with the combustion-chamber, and automatically-operating valves closing said ports.

5. In an internal-combustion engine, a cylinder having a combustion-chamber and open at one end, said cylinder also having a jacketchamber thereabout which communicates with the open end thereof, a piston in said cylinder, said piston having a valved aperture therethrough which connects the open end of the cylinder with the combustion-chamber, and means to admit vaporized fuel to the jacket-chamber of the cylinder, whereby said fuel after circulating through said jacket is delivered to the open-end of the cylinder and through the piston to the combustion-chamber.

6. In an internal-combustion engine, a cylinder having a combustion-chamber, said cylinder being open at one end and also having a jacket-chamber thereabout, a closed crankcase, the interior of which communicates with both the open end of the cylinder and the jacket-chamber, a piston having a valved aperture therethrough, means to admit vaporized fuel to the jacket-chamber of the cylinder, and

means to cause said fuel to circulate completely through the chamber before passing to the crank-case.

7. In an internal-combustion engine, an open-ended cylinder having a jacket-chamber thereabout, and a combustion-chamber therein, longitudinal partitions in said jacketchamber, a crank-case having a closed crankchamber which communicates with the jacketchamber at one side of the partition and also with the open end of the cylinder, means to admit vaporized fuel to the jacket-chamber on the other side of the partition, and a piston in the cylinder having a valved aperture therethrough.

8. In an internal-combustion engine, two connected cylinders of different diameter each having a combustion-chamber and one being open at its lower end, a jacket-chamber surrounding said cylinders, a crank-case having a closed crank-chamber communicating with both the jacket-chamber and open end of the cylinder, two pistons in said cylinders, each piston having a valved passage therethrough connecting the crank-chamber with the corresponding combustion-chamber, and means to admit vaporized fuel to the jacket-chamber.

9. In an internal-combustion engine, acylinder having a combustion-chamber, a jacketchamber surrounding the cylinder, partitions extending longitudinally and dividing the jacket-chamber into twocompartments which communicate with each other, one compartment communicating with the combustionchamber, and means to admit gasolene to the other compartment.

10. In an internal-combustion engine two cylinders opening directly into each other, each cylinder having a combustion-chamber, two connected pistons operating in said cylinders, each piston having a valved passage therethrough opening directly into the combustion-chamber of the corresponding cylinder, and meansto supply gaseous fuel to the combustion chambers through said valved passages.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

, JOSEPH D. BLAISDELL.

Witnesses:

LoUIs 0. SMITH, MARGARET A. DUNN. 

